11th Hour is playing on our tv screen as we type this. Informative. Interesting. And imperative to keeping ourselves, as well as our planet, alive.

So, choose LIFE. For us. For our future generations.

Do the right thing. And for our neighbour, that means : Stop the d@mn open burning!

Happy Earth Day.

sand, sea and sky

It has several names. Crocodile Beach is one. Meragang Beach is another. The quirkiest name is probably 7-Up Beach. No idea where that came from. If someone knows, please share the story!

leaving footprints at sunset

Brunei is blessed to have beautiful beaches. They’ve so far remained unspoilt, except by litterbugs who can’t seem to comprehend the idea of bringing their own rubbish away with them. Pity.

Still, the sunsets are wonderful. And they’re great for getting anyone motivated to taking leisurely walks. Hey, even a leisurely walk burns calories right?

We know we leave our fair share of carbon footprints. Switching off our lights at home for 1hour this year, we know we won’t come close to making up for the pain our airmiles causes Mother Earth. We are trying to do what we can though.

Won’t you join us and do your bit too?

to our Chinese traveller-friends

This year, our itchy feet haven’t made firm plans for faraway adventures. We did, however, take advantage of Malaysia Airlines’ recent promotion for fares between BN and KL. So, it looks like the city is back on our travel plan this year. It’s still 3 months away but we’re trying to suss out what would work best for our 1 week stay in the country.

We already know we’d like to check out historic Melaka for 2 days. His colleague’s recommendations and her ex-colleague’s recent trip’s report pretty much pushed the itchy-feet in that direction. After all, it’s only an hour’s drive away from KLIA in the opposite direction of the ‘dazzling capital city’. But the itch remains as to where else we could go for another destination. Fraser’s Hill was featured recently in this paper‘s travel section. But one half of the itchy-feet duo may find it a tad too boring for its city toes, haha.

And so the search remains…. let us know if you have any suggestions :0) Don’t shy-shy ah!

The first half of the year saw both of us in Singapore, seperately for our own getaways with friends. Then Easter took us to Sydney with family. The second half had us fleeing for solitude and downtime in Langkawi and she’s just come back from a whirlwind trip to Kota Kinabalu.

All in all, we feel really blessed for the opportunities that have sailed our way. Just 2 days ago, he looked at her and said, “Where shall we go next year?”. Hmm… he’s keen on Turkey, she’s curious about Belgium and itching to head back to Switzerland. Well, no matter, there’s no better place than home.

Our bestest hopes and wishes to you this 2009. May you continue to share our journeys with us. And we hope you’ll share your journeys with us too! If our itchy feet won’t take us places, the least you could do is let us travel through yours

This is how we ate our way around Langkawi. Pity night photography has yet to be mastered and pity the times we were too hungry to care about showing you what’s on our plates!

Gastronomic Foodprints

sunset on the beach

Our recent trip to Langkawi was for the sole purpose of recharging and relaxing. Living lazily was definitely the motto for the precious few days we spent there. We chose a cosy, boutique hotel right on Cenang Beach as our lazy-hole and rented a cute little set of wheels to zip around the island. Though 3 days was enough to discover what attractions, or lack of, dear lil Langkawi holds, there can never be enough time to just get away from it all.

la vida isla

It was great that we picked the right lazy-hole to hibernate in. A small, cosy hotel of only 30 rooms and a 1.5:1 staff to guest ratio is divine. While we still like our big, ambiguous, cookie-cutter chain hotels and resorts, we lapped up the lavish attention like deprived citysiders – GM coming to greet you upon arrival, a bouquet of 6 red roses for our ‘honeymoon’, insect-repellants next to the candle on your beachfront dining table in case you are a sandfly/mozzie magnet, fruity ice-cubes to refresh with at the pool, a la carte breakfast included in your room rate, chatty and capable F&B Manager who makes it feel like we’re staying over at a friend’s….

exotic meat, anyone?

When we did manage to pull ourselves out of the lazy-hole and into our little speedy gonzales, we headed off to Pantai Kok. The Langkawi Geopark, a failed experiment of some sort, with its cable car station and suspension bridge over Gunung Mat Cincang was not very exciting. The scattering of shops there all sold the same tourist crap and the restaurants were not worth a glance. We did run into something there we hope they don’t serve on their menu though!

Teluga Harbour Park is nearby and can satisfy your inner gourmand much better. Plus, you can pretend you’re in Nice or Monaco dining al fresco harbourside. Apart from that, nothing else to see in the area. We did poke our nosy noses into the hotels around the area and found we liked ours much better.

easy-breezy lounging

On the other side of the island is the busier town of Kuah. This is where mainlanders arrive by ferry in hordes to either soak up the sand and the sea like us tourists or to stock up on duty-free items. We dropped by Westin and loved what they did to the place. It was previously under their sister management of Sheraton. The new vibe they’ve infused is funkier, if not snobbier. After a late lunch at The Breeze, we stopped by the ferry terminal to see what tourist treasures we could find. I found Baskin Robbins calling my name very loudly instead!

The last place we did discover happened to be just down the street – Pantai Tengah. There was a little one-storey mall and some better looking spas and restaurants. More beachfront resorts can be found here but they looked pretty rundown and lacking in care. Our last supper was at an Italian place called L’Osteria. If we hadn’t already loaded up on seafood the nights before, we would have ended up at The Lighthouse instead.

As expected, island life is idyllic – read slow. Langkawi is a little like Bali, minus the crowds and loud parties. If you’re into water sports and mountain trails, this is the place for you. If you’re looking for a quiet little seductive spot for a honeymoon, this is for you too. If you’re looking for lazy days by the pool or beach with a good book, this is for you. Come to think of it, Langkawi is pretty versatile. It just boils down to what you are looking for.

We decided on taking our first step into the world of blogging simply because we are too lazy to send multiple emails about the same thing Honesty is the best policy, right?

Please bear with us as we try to update this blog as regularly as we can. We all know life gets in the way most of the time. Read and laugh, snicker, gasp or cry but don’t forget this is a two-way street. Leave us comments and let us know what you think too.

Till our next proper post….. keep well.